Court attributes John McAfee ‘liability’ for the death of a neighbor

John McAfee, an information security community personality, has been found legally ‘liable’ for the death of his neighbor, who was found dead because of a gunshot wound to his head at his home in Belize, in the year 2012, report experts in digital forensics and cybersecurity from the International Institute of Cyber Security.

The ruling, dictated in recent days in a Florida district court, is part of a five-year legal battle of Gregory Faull’s representatives against John McAfee, who spent some time living in Belize before his neighbor’s demise.

At the time, the local newspaper San Pedro Sun reported the death of Faull. The man, a 52-year-old American retiree was found by his housekeeper in the living room of his house with a gunshot wound to the back of his head at the end of 2012, the local media reported.

Although the local police wanted to interrogate McAfee as a potential witness to the incident, the millionaire, who is the founder of the McAfee antivirus software firm, was outside his home in Belize. Despite the fact that the investigation of the crime was being stopped, the relatives of Faull presented a civil case against McAfee, according to the information that is known in the industry of computer security and digital forensics.

“The court will issue a judgment for non-compliance with respect to the plaintiff’s liability and against the defendant for the wrongful death of Gregory V. Faull,” ruled the US District judge, Gregory Presnell, who had previously closed the case Against McAfee until a ruling by the US Court of Appeals was issued, forcing the reopening of the legal process.

John McAfee, however, does not seem to have been involved in the legal process, judging by the surprising lack of legal records presented by him in the case, to the point that he had not even hired a lawyer. The Faull defense allegation was therefore successfully applied to the default trial against McAfee. A January 2019 bank test was scheduled to determine what damages the antivirus company owner will have to pay.

According to reports of experts in digital forensics, on one occasion local police raided the property of McAfee for claims on an alleged drug production and storage campaign, as well as being accused of carrying unlicensed firearms. After the raid, the Belize authorities withdrew all charges against the employer.

However, the biggest controversy during McAfee’s stay in Belize has been the death of its neighbor, Gregory Faull.

Faull, who was last seen alive on a Saturday in November 2012, filed a formal complaint against McAfee for the latter’s ‘bad behavior’, complaining about his habit of shooting weapons and the misconduct of his dogs.

When the police searched the home of McAfee, wanting to interrogate the software developer company owner at once for the disappearance of their neighbor, he was not there. A few weeks later, McAfee reappeared in Guatemala, after illegally entering that country, as he himself admitted, to try to obtain political asylum. The McAfee application did not bear fruit and eventually returned to the United States.